20 Christmas Party Games for Kids That Steal the Show

Christmas parties with kids are either magical or chaotic — and honestly, the best ones are both. The trick is having enough games ready to keep the energy channeled and the excitement from turning into a meltdown. These 20 Christmas party games are tested, themed, and arranged so you can pick the right ones for your group’s age and energy level.

Active Christmas Games

When the sugar kicks in and kids need to move, these games channel the holiday energy into organized fun.

1. Christmas Gift Stacking Relay

Split kids into teams. Place a pile of wrapped boxes (different sizes) at one end and a table at the other. One kid at a time races to grab a box, stack it on the table, and run back. The team that builds the tallest gift tower without it toppling wins. Use lightweight boxes — shoe boxes wrapped in Christmas paper work perfectly. The stacking gets increasingly nerve-wracking as the tower grows.

2. Jingle Bell Toss

Set up buckets or bowls at different distances, each worth different points. Give kids a handful of jingle bells to toss. The jingling sound when they land adds a festive audio layer that regular ball-toss games don’t have. Mark a throwing line with tape and let each player have 5 tosses per round.

3. Sled Races

No snow? No problem. Use large cardboard boxes or laundry baskets as “sleds” on smooth floors. Kids sit inside while a teammate pulls them across the room and back. Race format, relay style. It’s loud, it’s silly, and it burns off an impressive amount of energy. Just make sure the floor surface allows sliding — carpet doesn’t work, tile and hardwood do.

4. Snowman Slam

Stack white paper cups into a snowman shape (big base, smaller middle, small head). Give kids soft balls or sock balls to throw at the snowman and knock it down. Like bowling, but Christmas-themed. Rebuild and repeat. Add a top hat (paper cone) for bonus points if they knock it off separately.

5. Christmas Dance Freeze

Play Christmas music — Jingle Bells, Rudolph, All I Want for Christmas. Everyone dances. When the music stops, freeze. Anyone still moving is out (or does a silly Christmas-themed forfeit: “do your best reindeer impression”). The Christmas music makes the standard freeze dance feel special and seasonal.

6. Santa Says

Simon Says, but Santa. “Santa says touch your nose.” “Santa says hop on one foot.” “Eat a candy cane” (without “Santa says” — anyone who moves is out). Christmas-themed commands make it funnier: “Santa says laugh like an elf,” “Santa says waddle like a penguin,” “Santa says pretend you’re stuck in a chimney.”

Hunt and Search Games

7. Candy Cane Hunt

Hide candy canes around the house before the party starts. Give each kid a paper bag and set a timer — 5 minutes to find as many as possible. For younger kids, hide them in obvious spots (on top of chairs, next to picture frames). For older kids, get creative — inside books, taped behind doors, inside coat pockets. The finder keeps what they find, which is all the motivation kids need.

8. Christmas Scavenger Hunt

Write clue cards that lead from one location to the next, with each clue rhyming or themed around Christmas. “Where does Santa enter on Christmas Eve? Look there for your next clue to retrieve!” (fireplace/mantel). The final clue leads to a prize — a bag of treats, a small gift, or the first slice of cake. For a more elaborate version, use our DIY escape room tutorial to chain puzzles together.

9. Christmas Escape Room

Turn your living room into a Christmas-themed escape room. The mission: help Santa escape his workshop before midnight. Use DIY puzzle ideas like cipher wheels decorated with snowflakes, UV light clues hidden on ornaments, and a combination lock on a “present” box that contains the final key. Our ausdruckbare Escape-Room-Sets come with holiday extras including Christmas posters and themed decorations — check our Christmas theme guide for setup ideas.

Guessing and Trivia Games

Calmer games for when you need to bring the energy down — or while everyone’s sitting around after the meal.

10. Christmas Guess Who

Write Christmas characters on sticky notes — Santa, Rudolph, Frosty, the Grinch, an elf, Mrs. Claus. Stick one on each kid’s forehead (they can’t see their own). They ask yes-or-no questions to figure out who they are. “Am I a person?” “Do I live at the North Pole?” “Am I green?” The giggles when a kid discovers they’ve been the Grinch the whole time are priceless.

11. Stocking Guessing Game

Fill a Christmas stocking with small objects — a candy cane, a toy car, a ball, a pencil, a jingle bell. Kids reach in without looking and try to identify each object by touch. Write their guesses on paper, then reveal the contents. The kid with the most correct guesses wins. Same concept as touch-and-feel boxes, but Christmas-themed and more portable.

12. Pin the Nose on the Snowman

Draw or print a large snowman without a nose. Cut out a carrot-shaped nose. Blindfold each kid, spin them, and let them try to pin the nose in the right spot. Mark each attempt with the player’s name. Closest to center wins. Same concept as Pin the Tail on the Donkey but festively rebranded.

13. Christmas Family Trivia

Mix general Christmas trivia (“What country started the tradition of Christmas trees?”) with personal family questions (“What did Grandma give Dad for Christmas in 2019?”). Split into teams for a competitive edge. The family questions always get the biggest reactions — especially when kids realize they know things about the family that adults have forgotten.

14. Guess the Christmas Smell

Blindfold players and hold different Christmas-scented items under their nose: cinnamon, pine needles, orange peel, gingerbread, peppermint, hot chocolate, cloves. They guess what each one is. Christmas is the most smell-heavy holiday, and this game uses that sensory richness. Surprisingly tricky for adults too — most people struggle with cloves vs. cinnamon when they can’t see.

15. Christmas Charades

Standard charades but with Christmas-only prompts: “wrapping a present,” “decorating a tree,” “sitting on Santa’s lap,” “building a snowman,” “eating too much turkey,” “untangling Christmas lights.” The last one is comedy gold — watching someone mime the frustration of tangled lights is universally hilarious.

Creative Christmas Activities

16. Gingerbread House Competition

Buy pre-made gingerbread house kits (or make your own from scratch if you’re ambitious). Give each kid or team a house, icing, and a pile of candy decorations. Set a timer — 15 minutes to create the best house. Vote on categories: most creative, most colorful, most likely to collapse, best use of candy. Everyone wins something, and everyone eats their creation.

17. Snow Blower Game

Place cotton balls (“snowballs”) on a table. Each kid gets a straw. On “go,” they blow the cotton balls across the table and into a cup or bowl at the other end. First kid to blow all their snowballs into the target wins. It sounds easy until you realize cotton balls are incredibly light and refuse to go in a straight line. Chaos guaranteed.

18. Ringing Bells Memory Game

Place 5-8 different-sounding bells under cups. Ring each one and assign it a number. Then ring them in a sequence — kids have to repeat the sequence from memory. Start with 3 bells and add one each round. It’s Simon Says meets musical memory, and the jingling sounds make it feel properly festive.

19. Christmas Musical Chairs

Same rules as regular musical chairs, but use only Christmas songs. Tape candy canes to each chair — the kid who sits on one keeps it. Add a rule: when the music stops, everyone must strike a Christmas pose (pretend to be a snowflake, a Christmas tree, Santa stuck in a chimney) before sitting. It adds an extra elimination criterion and more laughs.

20. Ornament Decorating Station

Set up a craft table with plain ornaments (wooden or clear plastic balls), paint pens, glitter, stickers, and ribbons. Each kid decorates their own ornament to take home. It’s a party activity and a party favor in one — every year when they hang that ornament on their tree, they’ll remember your party. Low-energy, high-creativity, and produces something tangible.

Weiterführende Literatur

• So veranstalten Sie eine Escape-Room-Geburtstagsparty zu Hause
• 20 Birthday Party Games for Kids
• 25 Ideen für einen Spieleabend mit der Familie

Planning Tips for a Christmas Party

• Start with energy, end with calm. Active games first (relay, sled races), winding down to crafts and trivia before pickup time.
• Time cake strategically. After the most active game block, before the calm games. The sugar crash hits during the quiet activities instead of the running ones.
• Have more games ready than you need. Some land, some don’t. Having 8 prepared and playing 5 is better than running out after 3.
• Make the escape room the centerpiece. Wenn Sie ein/e verwenden ausdruckbares Escape-Room-Set, schedule it as the main event (45-60 minutes in the middle) and use the other games as warm-up and cooldown.
• Send kids home with something. The decorated ornament, leftover candy canes, or a small treat bag. A party favor closes the experience on a high note.

Christmas parties are about creating memories — and the games are what kids actually remember. Not the decorations, not the food, not the presents. The game where they finally beat Dad in the relay race, or the moment they guessed “cinnamon” with the blindfold on, or the tower of gifts that collapsed right before they won. Those are the stories that get retold every year. Make them count.